An invisible detonator and wafer-thin plastic explosives turned batteries into bombs

BEIRUT, Oct 16 (Reuters) - The batteries inside the weaponised pagers that arrived in Lebanon at the start of the year, part of an Israeli plot to decimate Hezbollah, had powerfully deceptive features and an Achilles’ heel.

The agents who built the pagers designed a battery that concealed a small but potent charge of plastic explosive and a novel detonator that was invisible to X-ray, according to a Lebanese source with first-hand knowledge of the pagers, and teardown photos of the battery pack seen by Reuters.

To overcome the weakness - the absence of a plausible backstory for the bulky new product - they created fake online stores, pages and posts that could deceive Hezbollah due diligence, a Reuters review of web archives shows.

The stealthy design of the pager bomb and the battery’s carefully constructed cover story, both described here for the first time, shed light on the execution of a years-long operation which has struck unprecedented blows against Israel’s Iran-backed Lebanese foe and pushed the Middle East closer to a regional war.

  • prole@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    123·
    30 days ago

    It is textbook terrorism. Imagine being in the supermarket shopping for produce when suddenly the person standing next to you has their legs blown off… Would “terror” be a good description of how that would likely make someone feel?

    It’s just state-sponsored, which is why it was more sophisticated than what we’re used to seeing from non-state actors. Which makes it even worse.

      • PyroNeurosis@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
        4·
        30 days ago

        If the goal was military casualties, they’d have been better served by having Hezbollah mobilize its insurgents, by maybe massing on the borders in a very obvious show of force, then firing off the pagers once the militants were grouped and away from civilian populations.

        But then they’d be on the back foot because the survivors would be already massed and coordinating in person, which would hamper their actual invasion.

      • technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        33·
        30 days ago

        Did Israel intend to instill terror in the civilian population

        Yes. Absolutely yes. And the terror attack with pagers was just one part of the larger, ongoing terrorism.